Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Nixing
Chennai Corporation's bid to allow hawkers on the busy NSC Bose Road stretch
between Parry's Corner and Flower Bazaar police station, the Madras high court
on 13.10.2015, asked it to maintain the
stretch as a no-hawking zone in accordance with a 2013 Supreme Court order.

Chennaites
know this road too well ~it has great
history and has so many landmarks along.
A busy thoroughfare – on the one end is Parrys Corner [Madras High Court];
Rajaji statue – Kuralagam, Broadway bus stand [from where buses to various
parts of Tamilnadu once operated]; Chennai Telephone exchange; Flower Bazaar
Police station nearer which the statue of
British King George V stands – there are many important roads branching
off – Lingi Chetty St., ThambuChetty St., Armenian Street, Broadway
[PrakasamSalai], Badrian Street, Malayaperumal St., Godown Street ~from
GovindappaNaicken St, its texture changes.
It goes on to connect Wall Tax Road, now VOC Salai. All along there are many commercial
establishments including Hotel SaravanaBhavan, Dare House, Bombay Mutual
Building, Ramakrishna Sweets, Pachaiyappa Hall and more.

On
one side is what is now called Sowcarpet once the old Madras having age old
buildings and marriage halls in narrow bylanes.
Have read that trams used to ply in NSC Bose road in those days when it
was known as Chinna bazaar [there is also the Rattan bazaar, Evening bazaar, Burma bazaar] It was
the hub of many activities – besides the mofussil bus stand, there was the
Kothawalchavadi, the vegetable market; flower market at Badrian street, clothes
at Godown Street, dry fruits and pulses at GovindappaNaickst, Devarajamudali St
for turmeric, kumkum, glasses, essences and perfumes; many jewellers nearer
those twin pagodas of ChennaKesavaPerumalKovil and ChennaMallesswarar temple –
Sri PrasannaVenkateswarar temple [famously Bairagi Mutt]

This
area known as Black town during colonial period came to be called as George
Town from 1911 when King George V ascended the throne. The colonial past and his statue still
remain. One can find lot of fruit
sellers and other small time hawkers all along the road – it is a virtual
paradise for sellers displaying so many wares…… .. Today’s Times of India and
other media report that Madras high court has asked it to maintain the stretch
as a no-hawking zone in accordance with a 2013 Supreme Court order.

“We direct the
corporation commissioner of Chennai, and additional commissioner of police,
Chennai city traffic, to take necessary action and ensure that the area is
cleared of all encroachments and is maintained as a no-hawking zone,“ said the
first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay KishanKaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam.

Chennai, or for
that matter any other town in Tamil Nadu, has neither a hawking policy nor
zone. Chennai Corporation is yet to constitute a Town Vending Committee to
regulate hawkers despite the SC passing an order to this effect on September
2013. The LokSabha passed the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and
Regulation of Street Vending) Bill on September 6, 2013. Three days later, the
SC asked all states to form TVCs within two months and register vendors within
four months.The city has around 3,966 registered hawkers but more than 1 lakh
operate without a licence. The Street Vendors Bill sets the maximum number of
hawkers at 2.5% a city's population. Chennai, with a population of 65 lakh, can
have 1.62 lakh hawkers or an additional 50,000. The corporation has to register
all of them and provide them with dedicated hawking spaces and identity cards.

The first bench
passed the order on Tuesday after social activist K R `Traffic' Ramaswamy
brought the encroachment menace, the corporation's plan to create hawking space
on the stretch and the apex court's existing order declaring the area as a
nohawking zone to its notice.He was referring to a 1996 judgment of the Supreme
Court, following which 794 hawkers on NSC Bose Road and Evening Bazaar Road
were relocated to alternative sites at four different locations, including NSC
Bose Road.